Political commentary from the LA Times

Gennifer Flowers to auction off The Tapes with Bill

Just in time to ride the wave of publicity from tonight's Democratic primary debate in Cleveland, the last one before the decisive March 4 votes and, who knows, perhaps the last one period:

Gennifer Flowers has reemerged. She's trying for a comeback too, it seems.

Once, she was the other woman from Bill Clinton's past. Now, she's just another one of those women. But she's made an announcement that's important for her financial future. Flowers has decided to sell the tapes of the telephone conversations she secretly recorded with then-Gov. Clinton during their long relationship. You may recall back in 1992 the about-to-be president denied having an intimate relationship with Flowers.

But, oops, she called a news conference and played part of one of the tapes as convincing evidence. One can only imagine what else is on those tapes...

about shopping lists, the stock market and the dry cleaners. Those preserved phone conversations all came before Monica and what's-her-name and the other one with the big hair.

The 58-year-old Gennifer -- geez, it seems like we've known her a long time now -- says she's kept the tapes safely all these years and, what an idiot, turned down a $5 million offer from some unidentified Japanese man back in the 1990s.

Somehow she says she detected renewed interest in the recordings recently and, thinking of her financial security, figured why not sell now? Why not indeed? If Mrs. Clinton doesn't do very well in some states next week, the couple may not be around in the political news much anymore. And there goes the market for secretly-made telephone tapes.

Asked about the timing of her announcement, which appears in Tuesday's Las Vegas Review-Journal, it doesn't sound like Gennifer will be campaigning much for Hillary in Texas or Ohio later this week.

“I don’t need to hurt Hillary," Flowers told Norm Clarke. "She is doing a fine job of that herself, along with her idiot husband. Karma is an interesting thing. If these two don’t get elected, and they are a team, it will be karma coming back to visit them. It's about time."

Other than that, the Arkansas trio remain good friends.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Associated Press photo by Michael Caulfield of Gennifer Flowers blowing Larry King a kiss during the taping of "Larry King Live" on Jan. 23, 1998, at CNN studios in Los Angeles.